College town is more than tofu, Birkenstocks

By Kevin McCullen

The going rate for a front-window view of the majestic Flatiron Mountains may have gone up in the past century, but the scenery and viewpoints remain much as they've always been in Boulder.

Boulder, the 140-year-old home to the largest campus in the University of Colorado system, wrestles today with some of the same environmental and growth-related concerns the city's founders considered a century ago.

Either beloved or belittled by outsiders, Boulder always has been different from its neighbors. And no long-time resident of this city of 96,000 expects attitudes or the atmosphere to change appreciably early in the 21st century.

``When I got here in 1961, I had another doctor tell me, `You don't get paid as much here, but you get up every morning and you get a $5 view of the Flatirons from your window,' '' said retired Boulder physician and community activist Bob McFarland.

``Now, the cost would be about $70, so you get up every morning and you have a $70 view of the Flatirons. The price has increased, but the picture is still the same.''

Founded one year after the discovery of gold in the nearby mountains in 1858, Boulder long has prided itself on an environmental, political and social outlook that some call progressive, some call liberal and others call just plain wacky.

As CU's enrollment has increased to 25,000 and the cost of home ownership in Boulder increasingly has squeezed out middle-class families, the city remains a compelling place for longtime residents and newcomers alike.

With their picturesque setting and attitude, Boulder and CU for years have attracted people who are brilliant or bizarre - or both.

``There has always been room in Boulder for people who have different views,'' said Boulder County Commissioner Paul Danish, who attended CU in the 1960s and served on the Boulder City Council in the 1970s. ``They feel welcome here, and I hope we never lose that.''

Boulderites for years have become accustomed to the phrase, ``only in Boulder,'' to signify the city's sometimes atypical approach to issues.

The tenor for the town actually was set in February 1859, when the 70 members of the Boulder Town Co. divided land stretching eastward from the mouth of Boulder Canyon into 50-by-150-foot lots and sold them for $1,000 each, said City Councilman Dan Corson, a longtime local historian.

Cabins had to face north-south. Walls had to be 8 1/2 feet high and chimneys built inside. Cabin foundations had to be laid in seven days and the cabin finished in 60 days.

``They set out land-use regulations long before anyone else did,'' Corson said. ``People come to Boulder today and say how nice it looks, and it does look nice. It's the result of a lot of work.''

Over the decades, Boulder residents consistently have supported growth and building controls that were ahead of their time.

They set aside land in 1898 for the Chautauqua Auditorium, a wooden auditorium and concert hall that today is one of the few chautauquas still in existence. Residents that year also created the Boulder mountain park system, which today includes more than 7,000 acres.

Concerned about smelters along Boulder Creek in 1907, residents helped start a greenway program and created a parks board. Boulder's City Council the same year passed a growth-limitation boundary that forced development ``to pay its own way.''

Boulderites donated land to the federal government in the early 1950s to land federal research laboratories that now generate ground-breaking scientific research - and hefty white-collar payrolls.

Residents in 1959 approved a ``blue-line'' law to protect the city's mountain backdrop from development by restricting the extension of city water services to homes above 5,750 feet in elevation.

Three years later, residents passed a bond issue to prevent Enchanted Mesa from being sold to a hotel developer. And Boulder for years has supported a parks and open space program that now contains more than 28,000 acres.

``There was an effort to maintain the community's character even before Boulder had a character,'' Corson said. ``It's really ingrained in us.''

Residents literally went door-to-door in 1876 to raise money to build Old Main on campus to convince the legislature to locate the University of Colorado in Boulder. CU also was ahead of its time even after opening in September 1877.

Joseph Sewall, CU's first president, hired Mary Rippon in 1877 to teach German, making her one of the first female state university professors in the country.

In the 1920s, CU President George Norlin refused the suggestion of Colorado's then Ku Klux Klan-leaning governor to purge the faculty of Jews to win larger appropriations from the legislature, said Alan Cass, curator of CU's Glenn Miller Archive and a retired campus administrator.

``You can't have Boulder without CU and the separate influences each one had on the other,'' Cass said.

Boulder's laissez faire attitude toward differences and eccentric behavior has served the university well.

For example, Danish, as a CU student body vice president, helped engineer the renaming of the grill in the student union building after Alferd Packer, Colorado's notorious cannibal mountain man of the 1870s.

Like hundreds of other American campuses, CU witnessed a sudden rise in political activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s with anti-war protests.

Hippies moved into town ``because they liked it here like everyone else did,'' said McFarland, who treated them for free at the People's Clinic.

Danish said the politics of Boulder's City Council changed in 1971 after 18-year-olds were allowed to vote for the first time.

``You had the highest turnout in the city history, and the first liberal City Council was elected,'' said Danish, who himself was elected to the council in 1975. ``That council elected in 1971 looked at a growth study and passed the 55-foot height limit on commercial buildings. It was a watershed.''

Boulder's city government continues to wrestle with growth and other environmental issues, and activists occasionally still rally on the Boulder County Courthouse lawn. But for thousands of others, what makes Boulder attractive is its open space and views, the city's brick-lined Pearl Street Mall, and its people.

``One of the most important things we've had here in Boulder is tolerance,'' Danish said. ``One reason creative people are attracted to Boulder is that we do welcome unconventional ideas.''

May 11, 1999

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